Students undergoing training in one of the programs of the Cebu City government. | CDN file photo
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Cebu City is one step closer to forming its own city college as the City Council committee on laws is now reviewing the proposed ordinance that would make into reality the promise of Mayor Edgardo Labella to Cebu City residents upon his assumption as chief executive.
Councilor Raymond Garcia, majority floor leader, has taken the lead on the proposed ordinance as its author, and formed a draft of the Cebu City College Charter, the primary requirement of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) to start a city college.
In the charter, the city college will be under the supervision of city government with the mayor as the chairperson of the Board of Trustees, while the college president will be the board’s vice chairman.
The CHED will also monitor the city college with a representative of the CHED in Central Visayas (CHED-7) to serve as director of the board, who will be tasked to oversee the meetings of the Board of Trustees.
The board will also be composed of members including the presidents of the faculty association, student government, and alumni association; chairman of the committee on education of the City Council; and representatives of the Association of Local Colleges and accredited business or industry sector.
Read more: Labella promises to open Cebu City College during his three-year term
The proposed ordinance states that the Board of Trustees is responsible in creating the policies of the city college and the curriculum of the programs offered in accordance to the CHED standards based on the Republic Act 7722 or Higher Education Act of 1994.
The draft also proposed that the city college would offer programs that would be in demand in the community. This is in line with the request of Labella that programs offered in the city college should include the jobs most offered and most needed in the city.
In previous statements, Labella said he was considering programs like Human Resource Management (HRM), medical and health related courses, Information Technology (IT) and vocational courses to be offered to the Cebu City residents.
In a phone interview with CDN Digital, Garcia said that he would be expecting the proposed ordinance to be ready in two months, after some fine tuning by the committee on laws and the committee on education.
Garcia said there were a few things the committees might want to add including the specificity of the students who would be allowed to enrol in the college, and whether all students or only a portion of them would be scholars.
“I did not place the specifics about the students because we don’t know yet the director of the mayor on the college. We might add it or allow the board to decide it in the student manual,” he said.
Yet, Garcia said the main goal of the Cebu City College would be to provide the less fortunate Cebuanos a chance for quality education at minimal to no cost.
He said he was hoping that the city college ordinance would be passed soon so the city government could start establishing what he call “the long awaited dream” of Cebu City residents. /dbs